Eastchester pilot in crash landing: Parking lot was 'safest option'

5:47 PM,
Nov. 19, 2012

The small plane that crash-landed less than a mile south of Westchester County Airport around midnight Friday. The pilot, Judah Holstein, was reported back at work Monday.James O'Rourke/The Journal news

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Judah Holstein did not see his life flash before his eyes late Friday when he realized his plane couldn't make it to the Westchester County Airport.

Rather, the 43-year-old father of three, vice president of the Westchester Flying Club in Purchase, said his sole focus was landing his single-engine aircraft without taking out himself or any people or property on the ground.

"Once I recognized I was not going to be able to land safely at the airport, the parking lot was the safest option I found at the time," Holstein told The Journal News/LoHud.com today. "That's where I attempted to land. If not ...